WP: Stereotypes, Not Policy Changes, Drive Criticism of Hillary Clinton

[kskiska]

No Shift to the Center

By Peter Beinart

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But in fact the "Hillary shifts to the center" line isn't innocuous at all. It's crucial to the campaign that conservatives will wage against her in years to come. That campaign is likely to revolve around character.

In the 1980s Republicans demonized Democrats as ultra-liberals. But once Bill Clinton moved the party to the center in the '90s, that argument became less effective. And so in the past three presidential elections -- 1996, 2000 and 2004 -- Republicans have focused less on what Democratic candidates believe than on whether they believe anything at all. As the New Republic's Jonathan Chait has noted, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry were each called flip-floppers -- politicians willing to say anything to get elected. Those three GOP campaigns were all variations on the same theme: The Democrat running for president has no moral core.

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Now the drumbeat is starting with Clinton. This fall a conservative imprint will publish "The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President," by Edward Klein. Its publisher boasts, "Just as the Swift Boat Veterans convinced millions of voters that John Kerry lacked the character to be president, Klein's book will influence everyone who is sizing up the character of Hillary Clinton."

The "Hillary moves to the center" story line dovetails perfectly with this character attack. How far will Clinton "go to become president"? So far that she'll radically change what she believes. When Clinton recently said that religion played a central role in her life, New York Conservative Party leader Michael Long told the New York Times, "All of a sudden she is saying she has these deep convictions. . . . I don't believe that. It's clear to me that she is getting ready to launch her candidacy for presidency, and she will become whatever she has to become to appeal to centrist voters." Implicitly endorsing that view, the Times headline read, "As Clinton Shifts Themes, Debate Arises On Her Motives."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800915.html